Nothing major, but a note about this and about why the James' talks fell through (at least according to these sources): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/ian_thomsen/02/22/deadline.reaction/index.html
Juwan is fairly expensive, but with Chuck liable to foul out in about 15-20 minutes every single game, you need someone better than Kleiza to play the other half of the game. Battier can play some PF, but he's often needed more on the wing. Anyhow, I'd rather have to see 12 minutes of Head at the 1 than 28 minutes of Kleiza at the 4.
Does it hurt the feeling of Jhoward? Once you put the deal on the table , the damage is done. Am I too naive about this?
maybe if they were looking to trade him, but that isnt the case they wanted James, but MINN obviously wanted Juwan, which we weren't willing to do for chemistry reasons...besides the fact that Jho has been kicking butt since Yao went down and we would have had to make a particularly suprising deal for a replacement for him if we gave in to MINN. if anything, Jho will see this as a ringing endorsment from his coach.
Hopefully we can revisit that Howard trade next year.........when we don't need him as much. Trade him for James, draft Fazekas to replace him, and re-sign Deke for one year.
I heard the TNT guys saying how Kleiza had alot of talent the other night when they played the Spurs but I guess Denver doesnt think that highly of him if they were going to unload him for basically nothing in John Lucas.
Could of been this lineup come playoff time. James/Rafer McGrady/Head Battier/Bonzi/Snyder Kleiza/Hayes Yao/Deke Juwan is a huge key to our success though and i don't think Mike James could of replaced it.
There is no damage done. Juwan is a proven veteran and understands that this is a business. Besides, like R2K said, JVG values the importance of him on the team highly and now JHo knows that on a deeper level.
I think Lucas for Kleiza would have been a good trade. Lucas doesn't play much, and Kleiza can really shoot the ball well.
WHy do the Pups want a 35 year old PF? Even if they do deal KG in the summer, why JHo? That guy would be just a short term band aid to a rebuilding team, they can get a younger PF either in the draft or from another team. JHo at this stage of his career is in a perfect spot, IMHO he's being depended too much on offense but after TMac he's the next one with a post up game (when Yao went down). JVG has made a good dependable role player out of what I thought was loser-stats player, ala Shareef Abdul Rahim. Guys that at the end of the night gets nice stats but your team loses anyways because they don't do the little things to win games, which is not the case with JHo when I watch him these days, he does a good job of at times of swiping balls and not letting slashers have easy layups by giving good hard clean fouls. I hope we get a Paul Millsap type of PF in the next draft, I don't want to depend on JHo for major minutes at the PF for the next couple of years. he should be a 10-20 minute type of player in the near future.
Nugs have a gabillion bigs and need backcourt depth, tried to sign Little Luke when he signed with Rox. With Rox lack of frontcourt depth if this was available then why not?
Not surprising. THey've traded away Boykins, Watson, and Andre Miller. The only trrue pg they have is Blake.
I agree giving up Juwan for James and having Kleiza wouldn't help us much. The backcourt would have been better but the frontcourt would have been weakened even with the impending return of Yao.
I don't see it. JVG wanted Mike James. CD wanted to trade Juwan, and JVG was there to stop it. Juwan didn't play in the beginning of the season. He rode it out and now JVG gives him more minutes than Chuckwagon. JVG loves Juwan. I bet Juwan appreciates JVG for defending him.
